The life of an average girl turned marathoner

Twelve week check point

82 days until race day!

How are things going? It’s week 7 of marathon training. I’m getting all my runs in. Well, the runs I promised myself I would get in. The schedule calls for 5 days a week, but I think I know my body well enough to know that going from 3 fairly easy runs a week to 5 much more difficult runs right away was not a wise thing to do so I’m at 4 runs for now cutting out a 6k run on Saturdays. But I think I’m going to add that Saturday run in next week.

My physiotherapy has been going amazingly well. I wish I hadn’t been so stubborn about going in the first place. I’ve been suffering with back and leg pains for months to the point where I couldn’t move without a lot of pain after a run. Sometimes for days. Within a matter of weeks, the back pain is pretty much non-existent and the leg pain is much better. I started out seeing my physiotherapist twice a week at the end of May and I’m already down to once every 2-3 weeks. My advice? Go get things checked out if they hurt. It may be something easily fixed.

Mike and I on the boardwalk in Halifax

I was away for a week and was able to get the majority of my runs in. I got both of the 16 km long runs I needed to do as well one 8 km. Not bad for being on vacation. It’s amazing how much of a city you can see by doing a long run in it. Mike and I don’t get the chance to run together much since we run at different paces, but due to a series of unfortunate events, it worked out that I ran part of both of my long runs with him.

I was worried about coming back to my training group after being away. I was afraid that missing some of the runs would put me behind in the training. The first run back was not great, but since then they’ve been getting better. I think I’m pretty much at the same point as my buddies are.

The biggest struggle I see in my immediate future is the humidity. The weather is forecasting for more hot and humid weather coming up this week. That’s the one thing Mother Nature can throw at me that I can’t handle. This week’s runs will be a series of hard, slow runs that will test my mental game for sure. All in all, I think things are going well. The long run distances are going to start scaling up, up, up really quickly from here. Soon hills training will begin, and then speed work. I just hope I can make it through the summer heat and humidity fairly well as I keep my goal in sight.

Meta

I started running in 2011 after losing 80 lbs in an effort to keep it off and get healthy. It didn't take long for me to realize the mental health benefits as well, and I quickly fell in love. Since then, a week hasn't gone by where I haven't laced up and gotten outside to enjoy the fresh air. But like everyone, every now and then I need a little motivation, and so there's always a goal race I'm running towards...